Swiss Market Settles Higher

After staying somewhat subdued for a little over an hour after the opening bell, Swiss stocks gained in some strength on Thursday.

The benchmark SMI ended the session with a modest gain of 35.28 points or 0.27% at 12,893.61, after scaling a high of 12,933.63 in the final hour.

ABB climbed about 2.3%. Kuehne + Nagel gained 1.88%, while Lindt & Spruengli, UBS Group, Partners Group, Logitech International, Amrize and Julius Baer moved up 1.2 to 1.8%.

VAT Group, Straumann Holding, Holcim, Givaudan, Sonova, Nestle, Swatch Group, Sika and SGS gained 0.8 t 1.2%.

Meanwhile, Roche Holding, Lonza Group and Alcon lost 0.7 to 1.2%. Sandoz Group, Novartis and Swisscom ended modestly lower.

Data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) showed Switzerland’s unadjusted unemployment rate came in a 2.9% in November, ,the same in October. In the previous year, the jobless rate was 2.6% in November

The youth unemployment rate, which applies to the 15-24 age group, also held steady at 3.1%.